Nicholas had returned in a hurry. After entering her youth, her appetite had shrunk slightly, but she was still a massive carnivorous creature who needed to consume enormous amounts of meat.
Although the half-orc village at the foot of the mountain had been doing its utmost to meet her needs, the greedy red dragon had never been satisfied.
From time to time, she had to leave her nest and hunt for herself. Otherwise, the intense hunger would make her unable to resist eating the half-orcs—for an elegant and noble red dragon, Nicholas considered that shameful.
At least, that was what she thought. So whenever she was not quite so hungry, she would hunt ahead of time to avoid the embarrassment of eating whatever was available.
Really, it was just that half-orc meat smelled too bad!
Today's hunt had not been pleasant. She had encountered some creatures that did not know their place and had actually tried to challenge her authority. To ensure her absolute dominion over the Evil Dragon Mountain Range, Nicholas had no choice but to send them to the World of the Dead with Dragon Breath.
But their meat had been terrible, and the Dragon Breath she had wasted forced her to demand even more food.
Winter was approaching in the Evil Dragon Mountain Range, and food was becoming harder to find in this world.
Nicholas had already begun considering whether she should hibernate for a while to ease the pressure on her food supply.
After all, several decades had passed since her last hibernation.
But now was not the time to make that decision.
Having barely filled her stomach by attacking a herd of wild mountain goats, the red dragon flapped her wings and glided through her nest, soon arriving in the warm heart of the mountain.